Solar Cells are near extinct as of Alpha 21?

[NordHep]

After they removed the traders' secret stash solar cells has become near gone from the game. I'm currently playing on pregen map 8x8k and so far I've discovered a total of 15 traders, I am very high in game stage, loot stage and trader stage. I got all the extra perks for barter and rewards... but the one thing I can't get is solar cells.

So out of all these 15 traders there will be only one of them who will sell solar cells when they restock and its not even certain you'll find it at all, and when you actually find one its a solar cell of various / randomized level, so its very unlikely to find a lvl. 6 one. The last three times I've actually only found solar cells of quality level 3.

I got a ton of dukes stored in my base dedicated to buy solar cells (as a quality 6 will cost 72.000). Every third day I have to figure out which one of these 15 traders sells that one solar cell, then I can only hope its of a decent quality; often its garbage and I can't really buy it at all because its of such low quality it won't be enough to sustain a battery bank consisting of quality 6 car batteries.

I get that the solar cell is meant to be expensive, not common and considered to be used in late game, but come on. I so many dukes just laying around, I am late gamestage, the solar cell can only be found in trader's stock and the way Alpha 21 has re - arranged it, makes it a very tideous thing to obtain one. Would be more sustainable if more than one trader could sell solar cells at a time or at least makes them solar cells not of a random quality but balanced to your gamestage.

I'm hoping of course this is just a bug etc., but I am curious; have you been able to find solar cells in more than one trader's stock at a time or been able to obtain them a different way?

[PEEBOY]

the thing is, youre going to have a hard time finding a solar cell of quality level 6 because the traders have realized that empty jars are now worthless and cant hold liquid, so they have been using all the empty jars to craft the solar cells and no longer produce solar cells with their standard components...components that would allow that solar cell to be a level 6. a solar cell that is crafted via empty jars can only reach quality level 3...that is, if it survives. solar cells made from empty jars are quite fragile and break, so that could be the reason they are rare. sorry.

[Kryzx]

Unfortunately, TFP only gave them a probability of "0.2" in the traders.xml, which is VERY LOW compared to other items that the traders pull from in that group (Like ~1.1%). They also only spawn as Level 3 or Level 6 too, which is kind of unusual because I could've swore they were available from Levels 1-6 in A20.

Trader Bob generally will have a better chance to spawn them since he pulls from the "traderElectrical" list 8-15 times, whereas the other traders only pull from them 5-10 times per restock.

If you want, you can make changes to the 'prob="0.2"' for solar cells and bump it up to above 1 to get a higher chance of getting them & change the 'quality="3,6"' and remove the 3 to get the level 6 version only. I wonder if anything nefarious would happen if that was changed to "1,6" so it would vary from level 1-6 like before....

Also, for everyone else wondering when these solar cells will show up in a trader's inventory: solar cells are in the "electricTier3" group and those have a minimum trader stage of 55 in order for them to show up.

Trader stage = (player level + ("Daring Adventurer" level * 10)) * (1 + Quest Tier)

Quest Tier starts at 0 & increments by 0.05 each tier, maxes out at 0.3 (completing Tier 6).

"Daring Adventurer" apparently increases the trader stage by 10 (thanks for correcting me @Pain Weasel!) per perk level, so that maxes at 40 if you obtain all 4 levels.

So with the formula above, you need to have a character level + "Daring Adventurer" perk that adds up to 43 and complete all the quest tier completion rewards at the trader in order for those to have a CHANCE to show up in their inventory per restock.

EDIT: corrected "Daring Adventurer" trader stage levels.
EDIT 2: 'quality=' is the RANGE, so "3,6" will have quality levels between 3~6, it's not an individual attribute per comma. I don't know why I thought that earlier. ~_~

[Pain Weasel]

Originally posted by Kryzx:

"Daring Adventurer" apparently increases the trader stage by 1 per perk level, so that maxes at 4.

10, not 1, with a max of 40. (...level="1,4" value="10,40"...)

That being said, with regard to solar cells I've gotten them fairly reliably from trader tier rewards. They usually seem to offer a Solar bundle at T5 I think although RNG is in control of the quality of cells.

[Kryzx]

Thanks for correcting me! Also wanted to point out you can find those solar bundles in air drops too!

[NordHep]

Originally posted by Kryzx:

Unfortunately, TFP only gave them a probability of "0.2" in the traders.xml, which is VERY LOW compared to other items that the traders pull from in that group (Like ~1.1%). They also only spawn as Level 3 or Level 6 too, which is kind of unusual because I could've swore they were available from Levels 1-6 in A20.

Trader Bob generally will have a better chance to spawn them since he pulls from the "traderElectrical" list 8-15 times, whereas the other traders only pull from them 5-10 times per restock.

If you want, you can make changes to the 'prob="0.2"' for solar cells and bump it up to above 1 to get a higher chance of getting them & change the 'quality="3,6"' and remove the 3 to get the level 6 version only. I wonder if anything nefarious would happen if that was changed to "1,6" so it would vary from level 1-6 like before....

Also, for everyone else wondering when these solar cells will show up in a trader's inventory: solar cells are in the "electricTier3" group and those have a minimum trader stage of 55 in order for them to show up.

Trader stage = (player level + ("Daring Adventurer" level * 10)) * (1 + Quest Tier)

Quest Tier starts at 0 & increments by 0.05 each tier, maxes out at 0.3 (completing Tier 6).

"Daring Adventurer" apparently increases the trader stage by 10 (thanks for correcting me @Pain Weasel!) per perk level, so that maxes at 40 if you obtain all 4 levels.

So with the formula above, you need to have a character level + "Daring Adventurer" perk that adds up to 43 and complete all the quest tier completion rewards at the trader in order for those to have a CHANCE to show up in their inventory per restock.

EDIT: corrected "Daring Adventurer" trader stage levels.

Thank you so much for the insightful information. If I make these changes will it disable achievements / cause problems on my playthrough?

[Smightor]

I had a completely different experience. Jen has had a solar panel in inventory since day one. Day 36 and its still there. I never bought because I picked one up in a drop somewhere. I was amazed they made the solar panel so easy to get now as it used to be a late game item I almost never got.

[NordHep]

Originally posted by Smightor:

I had a completely different experience. Jen has had a solar panel in inventory since day one. Day 36 and its still there. I never bought because I picked one up in a drop somewhere. I was amazed they made the solar panel so easy to get now as it used to be a late game item I almost never got.

Yes the solar panels are available at most traders, but you need the solar cells to utilize them. The solar banks go for like 4500 dukes but the solar cells are alot more expensive, can not be found in loot or crafted. Only one trader will have one single solar cell every three days and it is often a low quality one that you can't really utilize at late gamestage.

[Smightor]

Ahh ok, I understand.

[Lady MacBeth]

Sounds like the numbers in the xml still need some fine tuning then.

[falconater68]

Originally posted by ryan:

the thing is, youre going to have a hard time finding a solar cell of quality level 6 because the traders have realized that empty jars are now worthless and cant hold liquid, so they have been using all the empty jars to craft the solar cells and no longer produce solar cells with their standard components...components that would allow that solar cell to be a level 6. a solar cell that is crafted via empty jars can only reach quality level 3...that is, if it survives. solar cells made from empty jars are quite fragile and break, so that could be the reason they are rare. sorry.

That was pretty good.

[Kryzx]

Originally posted by NordHep:

Thank you so much for the insightful information. If I make these changes will it disable achievements / cause problems on my playthrough?

I don't believe there's any achievements tied to the traders as it is, so I don't see why not, as long as you're just doing it in single-player.

I've been unlocking achievements in steam playing overhaul mods like Darkness Falls & Undead Legacy just fine!

[NordHep]

Originally posted by Kryzx:

Originally posted by NordHep:

Thank you so much for the insightful information. If I make these changes will it disable achievements / cause problems on my playthrough?

I don't believe there's any achievements tied to the traders as it is, so I don't see why not, as long as you're just doing it in single-player.

I've been unlocking achievements in steam playing overhaul mods like Darkness Falls & Undead Legacy just fine! :Aste_Roy:

Thank you again, I'll go change those numbers to increase chance of spawning solar cells... its rather annoying how rare they made them.

[Zem]

Well, I'm Lvl 105, Days 40: Still 0 Solar Cell
I thought you could get the solar cells with T6 quests, but after about 3-4 missions: Shopkeeper doesn't show me these T6 quests anymore....

Random world with only 3-4" POI Tier 5, can -be that's why it doesn't offer me any more.

[Plagen]

I think the point of them is to be super rare. They're basically infinite power since they don't degrade. You don't have to use gas to recharge them or find new batteries to get power from.

[Sundaysmiles]

I've seen Jen sell them twice now. Close to 140000 for a purple one... like ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, and no that's not a typo with the zeroes